If you follow along on Facebook, you know that I wrote an entire post to share today, and then took note of it’s boringness and decided not to publish.
Why you’re welcome!
In it’s place, my fellow twin mama Crystal suggested that I give an account of our experience with Paisley’s Pneumonia and our run-in with the ER on Friday night.
It went something like this:
It was evening. Nick was at work. The girls were in bed.
Paisley had been suffering from a cough throughout that day, but was in good spirits… so we thought nothing of it. Tis the season, right?
Through the monitor, I could tell that the girls were sleeping… but I could also faintly hear that one of the girls was breathing very rapidly. I went up to find Paisley quietly laying awake, vigorously sucking her thumb, with a slight fever, breathing like she’d just finished a marathon.
I brought her downstairs to snuggle, took her temp (101.9), and called First Nurse to inquire about her rapid breathing. The nurse was very kind, and instructed me to count how many respirations she had in a 60 second time period. It was 52 breaths… and the nurse told me to head to the ER.
Insert panic.
Nick was at work, 20 minutes away, with the vehicle that has the carseats. I called his cell phone… no answer. I called his work phone… no answer.
Insert freak-out.
After what felt like 16 hours (but was actually about 3 minutes) he called back. All I needed to say was ‘you need to come home right now’ and he was on his way.
He stayed with sleeping Delly while I took Paisley to the nearest town. I walked up to the counter in the ER with a pajama-clad, clearly-ill child in my arms… and nobody was at the counter! IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM!
Ummmmmm, HELLO?
Five minutes later, a lady came out and held up her index finger… indicating that I would need to wait even longer while she finishes up what she’s doing. SO classy if you ask me.
I spent the next 3 hours doing the following:
- waiting
- talking to the nurse
- waiting
- talking to the Dr
- Holding Paisley down while Dr looking in her mouth and ears, and listened to her chest
- waiting
- holding Paisley down while they took chest xrays
- waiting
- listening to the doc tell me she has a black ‘mass’ on her lung
- waiting
- holding Paisley down while the phlebotomist tries 3 times to find the vein in her arm
- waiting
- getting a diagnosis of Pneumonia and possibly RSV
Finally, at 2 in the morning, I loaded up my sick child in the cold vehicle to drive home at last.
Then the gas light came on in the Jeep.
AWESOME.
Girlfriend was such a trooper throughout this whole ordeal, and has remained in good spirits throughout the whole infliction thus far. She’s had a better attitude than I did, that’s for sure!
She’s been on an antibiotic for 3 days now, and has almost made a full recovery! We were lucky enough not to have to put her on a nebulizer treatment, and we’re so grateful for that! She still coughs on occasion, but nothing close to how it was over the weekend!
You were all so very sweet with all the comments of encouragement when I shared it all on our Facebook page. It’s not just everybody that has a huge loving cheering squad like we do.
We’re so blessed.
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Pushes a chair up to the counter while I was in the shower…you see I had just got off shift…they got a bottle of Tylenol and a bottle of Benediryl down and drank them both. I checked the carpet. Nothing sticky. I called poison control they said take them to the ER now get me a damn doctor! Funny there was a dr. Is 2 seconds they had to pump their stomachs. I never would have thought they could reach that. I had an eight yr old son who could get into lots of places but the top shelf of the kitchen? Needless to say two things happened after that day. One a hook and eye lock went on their bedroom door. Also we put a padlock on the cabinet in the kitchen. They are both electrical engineers now! Lol
As a birth mother of two and step of three at one point I had four under three. I needed to take my twin girls to the ER and their dad was at work I had to wait for someone to come stay with them. When I got to the ER the triage nurse informed me I didn’t need to be there because if the twins had done at three in morning what I was saying surely they would have gotten on themselves….to which I replied look lady I can’t help it if they were neat about it, they climbed out of THIER cribs
My little man Jonah had a nasty respiratory bug at about 6 months and although we didn’t have to go the ER, mainly because he was at his worst during the day time I think, but he did have to go on a nebulizer for a few weeks. It was rough. But the nebulizer helped him so much and although he fought it at first, the binky helped calm him down and he got through it fine. But ever since then, he has a rough time every time he gets a cold. We have to use a Vicks vapor humidifier, some cold meds, keep him completely away from dairy, and he still ends up with a nasty cough that lasts for a while. I just wanted to share my experience in hopes that it helps you or someone else with sickness and their kiddos. I’m really glad that Paisley is okay! Her eyes are so so pretty in the photo above. There’s nothing worse than seeing your babies really sick! UGH!
I look at your posts every day – though I try to comment, they don’t usually go thru – I am hoping this one does as I want you to know that I am praying for your Paisley…and the whole family. It is a scary scary thing when your little ones are ill…especially with breathing problems (our youngest is 21 1/2 – years old) and was diagnosed with Asthma when he was 4 years old – we had many nights at the ER when he was young – to this day we still have the nebulizer in use.
Hoping and praying your little one continues to improve and your whole family stays well!!
laura.daniel58@yahoo.com
Maybe if I try to publish this with an anonymous profile it will let me…
Laura, it WORKED! I’m so distraught that some people have trouble posting comments… makes me so sad 🙁 But I’m really glad it worked for you this time! I did remove the ‘word identification’ from the comments to make it easier for people, so I don’t know if it had anything to do with it.
Thank you for your kind words and well wishes! It’s nice to know that others know what we’re going through. 🙂 Sounds like your little guy had it pretty rough!
Thanks for posting, Beth! As a fellow mother, I can relate to how panicked and freaked out you were. Seems like we’d give ANYTHING to make our children feel normal again. I’m so glad that she got some antibiotics and is now almost fully recovered!
Cryst
So glad she’s ok. On a side note, she’s so stinking cute!!! How do you stand it??? Those eyes! That chubby arm!!! She’s a doll.
I am so happy your little girl is better. I would have freaked out too, actually I did. I had to take my little girl to ER too. Not fun and I am so grateful she is well.
Hugs,
Vanessa
Nick is working evening shift, right? How is that going for you? Those were some hard years for me, but our kids are older and in school meaning I was a solo mom much of the time and my husband didn’t get to see us much at all. I’m hoping it’s going a lot better for you!
Beth, it’s funny that you bring that up… the loooong borrrrring post that i HAD written for today was about how we’re adjusting to him working second shift, and how our typical day goes. 🙂
We both like the second shift schedule, but I’m hoping it will only last a couple years. Because once the girls are in school (like you said) they’ll never get to see their daddy! 🙂
It saddens me to hear that she was not made a priority at your local ER. In most hospitals (at least where I live) children and the elderly are always given priority because they are considered the “critical” group for health care. And I have found, with my twins, that when they have difficulty breathing, letting them sleep in their car seats helps because it’s easier to breathe when you are not laying down. I hope she feels better and that the black mass was just congestion. Sending prayers for you and your family.
So glad she is getting better, and thank heavens for monitors..I still insist on having them in my hallway area between my childrens bedrooms (1 and 5)..so if I’m on the other end and something goes wrong or sounds at night..I know and am up instantly.
awwww, so glad that she is getting better. I know how scary that is with their breathing. I used to get so paranoid when my kids were babies. I would check their breathing like every 2 seconds!